Individuals in the fish, meat, and poultry industries, as well as in institutional food businesses, who use knives on a continuous basis, require that the knives have a sharp cutting edge at all times. The cutting edge of the blade of a knife is generally sharpened by these individuals on a frequent basis at their position of work.
Prior art knife sharpening devices include the device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 772,542 to Sullivan where crossed sharpening elements are pivoted at a common pivot point and curved ends of the sharpening elements are biased together by a single tension spring. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,064,393 to Chasan, two sharpening elements are pivoted at one end and a spring biases the opposite ends towards each other. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,632 to Inman, a holder with a slot opening to the top of the holder has crossed sharpening elements pivoted at their upper ends and spring biased at their lower ends by individual springs. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,079 to Bonapace, two sharpening elements are crossed at their upper ends and spring biased at their lower ends by individual springs. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,934,110 to Juranitch discloses various arrangements of crossed sharpening elements which are pivoted and spring biased at the same ends.